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INTERNATIONA 



u E 



ITIONS, 



PARIS-PHILADELPHIA-VIENNA. 



BY 



CHARLES GINUklEZ. Architect, of France, 
PROFESSOR JAMES M. HART, of United States. 




New York : 
A. S. BARNES & CO. 

1878. 



Copvright. 1878, 
By A. S. Barnes & Co. 



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J' 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Paris International Exhibition, 1878, ^ 5 

By CHARLES GINDRIEZ, Architect. 

Vienna and the Centennial, 22 

By Prokessor JAMES M. HART. 



Comp anion Volu-ine. 



n 



- -{ 




RLD'S FAIR, PHILADELPHIA, \m 



A CRITICAL ACCOUNT. 
By Professor FRANCIS A. WALKER, of Yale College, 

(Chief of the Biireaii of Awards at the CeJttennial Exhibition.) 

Cloth, 8vo. Price, 50 Cents. 



BY THE SAME PUBLISHERS: 

ATLAS ESSAYS, in Three Volumes. 

YOLTJME I.— AMERICAN CURRENCY. 

THE MONEY PROBLEM Amasa Walker, LL.D. 

THE CURRENCY QUESTION Amasa Walker, LL.D. 

Glofh, 8vo, Flexible. Price, 50 Cents. 

VOLUME II.— BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM. 

LORD MACAULAY Edward A. Freeman, LL.D. 

GEORGE TICKNOR Edwin D. Whipple 

ERNST CURTIUS ....Robert P. Keep, Ph.D. 

PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON George Lowell Austin. 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Ray Palmer, D.D. 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT Ray Palmer, D.D. 

EDGAR ALLAN POE ....John H. Ingram. 

CHARLES TENNYSON Andrew J. Symington.. 

EDWARD A FREEMAN Henry Coppee, LL.D. 

CHARLES SUMNER George F. Magoun, D.D. 

JOHN STUART MILL Noah Porter, LL.D. 

MILL AS A RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHER Noah Porter, LL.D. 

Cloth. 8vo, 272 Pages, Boards. Price, $1.50. 

VOLUME III— SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROBLEMS. 

THE WORKING CLASSES IN EUROPE.... Thomas Hughes, M.P. 

LABOR IN ENGLAND Thomas Brassey, M.P. 

GRANGERISM Dr. Francis Wharton. 

THE GRANGE AND THE POTTER LAW.. By a Granger 

THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC General Franz Sigel. 

INDIAN CITIZENSHIP Francis A.Walker, Indian Com. 

THE CHINESE QUESTION Dr. E. D Mansfield, of Ohio. 

THE GUARANTEE OF ORDER AND REPUB-^.,^^^ T, ^ rnm t.^^ 
LICAN GOVERNMENT IN THE STATES, ^J^dge i. ivi. l.oole^ . 

SOME CHECKS AND BALANCES^ ,^^^^ t, ,. nr.r..^.r 

IN GOVERNMENT, \ J"^^^ ^- ^^- ^°^^^^- 

THE DIFFICULTIES OF REPUB-^ FmvAi.T. A Fpkpmam tt n 

LICANISM IN EUROPE, ^ Eduard A. Freeman, LLD. 

Cloth, 8vD, 184 Pages. Price, $1. 



THE PARIS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION 

OF 1878/ 



ORGANIZATION. 

ON the report of M. Teisserenc de Bort, Minister of Agriculture 
and Commerce, the President of the French RepubHc, Mar- 
shal de MacMahon, decreed, on the 4th of April, 1876, that a great 
exhibition of agricultural and industrial products would be opened 
in Paris on the ist of May, 1878, to be closed on the 31st of October 
following, and that all foreign nations would be invited to take part 
in it. 

Immediately the project was laid before the Superior Commis- 
sion for International Exhibitions, who had to decide on two much- 
discussed points : First. Would the exhibition be held inside or 
outside of Paris? Second. Were the buildings to be permanent or 
temporary? 

Certainly there seems to be something abnormal in the fact of 
erecting vast, and in some instances elegant, rich, and even durable 
buildings, to pull them down afterwards. One is vexed at the 
thought of so much spoiled material, such useless expense and 
barren efforts. In a few months the vast spaces are cleared, and 
the great undertaking leaves no more trace than a phantasmagoria 
or a dream. 

Is it then impossible to plan a building which might answer the 
double purpose of a great exhibition first and of some other object 
afterwards? The answer is, that it is extremely difificult to find 
another use for such large buildings ; it seems as if they could be 
employed for other great exhibitions only. This conclusion would 
give great weight to a theory upheld by some distinguished men, 
and quite recently by the Rcviie d' ArchitcctiLrc Frangaise, according 
to which these ephemeral palaces are unworthy of powers whose 

- A portion of this essa}- appeared in tlic International R:7'iew for July-August, 1S7C. 



6 THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

sovereignty 13 now uncontested , and, since universal exhibitions 
have taken a permanent, regular, and indispensable character, they 
have a right to a permanent palace. This proposition seems fair, 
yet how many objections can be raised against it ! The least 
would not be Le Palais de I Industrie, which, built for the Interna- 
tional Exhibition of 1855, remains useless ten months out of twelve, 
and only serves to shelter the annual exhibition called Le Salon. It 
must also be taken into account that in these fetes of progress 
and novelty the forms of the buildings, their structure and ar- 
rangements, are in themselves elements of this kind of attraction. 
Lastly, it will be impossible to erect a permanent palace so long as 
this problem is not solved: What shall be its dimensions? 

The surface occupied by successive great exhibitions has been, 
hitherto, steadily increased ; and this progression is by no means at 
an end. Le Palais de T Industrie of 1855, compared to our present 
exhibition in the Champ de Mars, is literally as a sloop by the side 
of a man-of-war. At every new trial it is believed that, the summit 
having been reached,- the decline must of necessity follow ; but 
each new experiment is on a larger scale than the last. To speak 
only of the great exhibitions held in Paris, that of 1855 covered 
97,000 square metres, that of 1867 covered 153,000 square metres ; 
the present one, 1878, covers 280,000 square metres. 

It appears impossible to settle any thing on such shifting 
ground. 

As to deciding whether the exhibition should be inside or out- 
side of Paris, any uncertainty would only have existed in case the 
French capital had possessed no space large enough to allow of the 
vast developments intended for the new exhibition ; for the gov- 
ernment of the Republic had resolved to surpass 1867, and especially 
wished to eclipse the works of the Empire at any cost. If such a 
space could be found in the interior of Paris, why then tax the time 
and purse of Parisians, provincials, foreigners, of ourselves and our 
guests, in useless and expensive journeys? 

It was proposed to put a glass roof over the iminense court 
formed by a union of the Tuileries with the Louvre ; this project 
was, however, abandoned as insufficient. Then the commission 
remembered the space occupied by the preceding great exhibition 
(Champ de Mars, close to the Ecole Militaire and Les Invalides), 
and thought that a slope rising at one of its extremities, and only 
separated from it by the Seine, might be annexed to it. This 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. s J 

slope, rising like an amphitheatre, is well known to every one who 
has visited Paris : it is the Trocadero. 

According to this plan, the ground allotted to the exhibition 
would really consist of two different spaces, separated by the 
Seine : on one side the Champ de Mars, upon which would be 
erected the great industrial palace as in 1867; on the other side 
the heights of the Trocadero, which might be covered with build- 
ings distributed so as to produce the best effect in picturesque per- 
spective ; lastly, between the Champ de Mars and the Trocadero 
there already existed one single way of communication, a hyphen, 
the Bridge of Jena. But this bridge was too narrow for the crowds 
of people to pass. Then it must be enlarged. 

There was even a proposal to cover it over, and put glass cases 
inside it, filled with works of art, as in the famous bridge of Flor- 
ence, which crosses the Arno, and unites the Pitti to the Uffizi. 

It is about this bridge that the great battle of criticism has 
been fought. Certainly, as regards the accommodation of the pub- 
lic, it is inconvenient, since, in order to go from the Trocadero to 
the Champ de Mars, whatever may be the starting-point or the 
point to be reached, one is obliged to pass over it. This involves a 
little fatigue and a slight loss of time; but it may be a cause of 
complaint rather with workmen than with the crowds of sight-seers 
who enjoy a ramble about parks and gardens, and are not generally 
very much attached to straight or precise lines. Every thing con- 
sidered, these little disadvantages are more than compensated for 
by the proximity to the Seine and her numerous steamers, which 
bring and take back the greater part of the crowds from one end of 
Paris to the other. 

The shortcomings of the Exhibition of 1867 were too well re- 
membered and too recent not to awaken a lively preoccupation 
about securing adequate means of transport, upon which the com- 
fort or discomfort of every visitor is dependent. The powers of 
imagination recalled the archaeological coucoiis and antediluvian 
obligcantcs,^ drawn by lank, worn-out horses, hurriedly requisitioned 
on twenty leagues of ground around Paris; together with such 
masses of human beings, shaken, jolted, and bruised, who may, par- 
donably, have fancied themselves amongst the Alps as they were 
driven along the streets of our capital, or else may have firmly 
decided in their minds that, in Paris, carriage-building was but a 

* Old-fashioned French carria<?es. 



8 TIIEFRENCHEXHIBITION. 

primitive art. Tiicreforc it was decided that a special railway should 
be made for the service of the exhibition, and the starting-point 
placed in the very center of Paris — at the gare dii Havre ^ close to 
the Madeleine and the Opera. 

DESIGNS AND PLANS. 

These preliminaries once settled, the commission made known 
the conditions upon which competitors were to base their 
architectural designs for the arrangement of the grounds and the 
construction of buildings. On the report of M. VioUet-le-Duc, 
it was decided that the palace of the great exhibition would be 
erected upon the Champ de Mars, whilst the annexes would be op- 
posite, on the heights of the Trocadero. The exhibition was to 
assume, not, as in 1867, the elliptic form, but the rectangular; and 
its internal arrangement would be that of a multiplication-table, so 
as to contain in one line all products of a kind, and in that running 
at right angles to it the several exhibiting nationalities, so that in 
order to visit the exhibition of any nation it would only be neces- 
sary to follow the gallery or galleries allotted to that nation, and in 
order to visit the complete and cosmopolitan exhibit of a given pro- 
duct it would be necessary to cross and follow the gallery or galle- 
ries allotted to said product ; lastly, in order to find a certain exhibit 
of a particular nation one would need only to follow the gallery con- 
taining objects of this class to the point of crossing, in a perpen- 
dicular direction, by the gallery of that nation. 

The programme, moreover, stipulated that the construction 
should be an iron skeleton, filled up with brick, and in the middle of 
the edifice was to be an open space, destined to become a garden — the 
necessary oasis, the place of rest and refreshment for visitors tired 
out by their walks along the endless galleries. For the travees of 
these galleries were to be all alike, no doubt in order to facilitate 
and hasten the execution of the work by the adoption of one 
model only. 

The programme, however, specified that other and higher galle- 
ries would have to be constructed for the machines, and placed 
towards the ^mtral part of the palace. 

The commission h:id chosen the rectangular form in preference to 
the curvilinear, because, after pulling down the Exhibition of 1867, 
the iron had to be sold at ridiculously low prices, on account of its 
curves, which rendered it unfit for further use. No doubt this was 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 9 

to be taken into consideration ; but it might have been foreseen 
that, so far as the floor arrangement is concerned, the new plan 
would lack the precious advantage afforded by curves whose radii 
may be directed towards a center, which affords, for purposes of 
classification, a unique starting-point of ideal clearness and simpli- 
city. Therefore, if this disposition has been abandoned, the main 
reason may perhaps be found in the national desire to outdo 1867, 
and also in the pride of men who, having to preside at a great un- 
dertaking, did not -choose to be accused of imitation. 

The programme thus offered to public competition was perhaps 
the most complex and difficult to fulfil that had ever been offered to 
the meditations of engineers and architects. Would it be believed 
that a delay of only twenty days was allowed to the competitors ? 
Surely it seems as if this grave commission had been childishly impa- 
tient for the realization of their plans. In spite of this absurdly short 
notice, ninety-four projects were presented. None of them obtained 
the requisite number 'of votes, either for the first or the second 
prize ; consequently none was adopted in full. But twelve were 
noticed, and amongst these the first six received a premium of 3000 
francs, and the other six a premium of 1000 francs. 

Each of the twelve projects contained some desirable suggestion, 
which the commission, prompted by eclecticism, ventured to bor- 
row, and thus constructed a definite plan. Thus the palace of the 
Champ de Mars belonged to M. Hardy's project, and the palace of 
the Trocadero to that of MM. Davioud and Bourdais. It is safe to 
believe that the shortness of the time given for competition by the 
commission aimed at the result reached. They must have known 
very well how impossible it was for all competitors to carry out so 
important a work satisfactorily in the space of twenty days. Did 
they wish, then, to prolong their powers, which would naturally have 
been at an end after the selection of a complete plan? If this were 
their intention, it was an act of disguised tyranny. Imperialism with- 
out the title. This accusation has been brought at least against 
the celebrated architect, reporter of the commission, M. Viollet-le- 
Duc ; and it must be granted that it is credible. Whether premedi- 
tated or not, it is to this new but assuredly dangerous form of eclec- 
ticism that is due the ensemble of the present exhibition. 

And now that the works are -executed, one may ask what is the 
use of commissions and programmes. Certainly, it requires a most 
unusual degree of perspicacity and no small amount of trouble 
to discover in the present exhibition the realization of the pub- 



10 THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

lished programme. For instance, the machinery, which was to have 
been stored in the interior galleries of the palace in the Champ de 
Mars, was afterwards, rightly, thrown out towards the exterior ; the 
central garden has been almost entirely absorbed by the special 
building devoted to the exhibition of the tov/n of Paris ; the Bridge 
of Jena, which was to be roofed over, has been merely enlarged ; 
the Trocadero, instead of being entirely covered with galleries, con- 
tains, besides its park, kiosk, and little buildings, disseminated like 
those of a cosmopolitan fair, only the Palais des FeteSy with its im- 
mense horseshoe galleries, and the marvelous cascade. Lastly, ac- 
cording to a convention between the state and the town of Paris, 
the Palais du Trocadero, instead of being ephemeral, like an enor- 
mous booth, has become a lasting edifice, made of durable material. 

The estimates for the total expenses of the exhibition reached 
approximatively 35,310,000 francs. In consequence of the conven- 
tion for the Trocadero Palace, the town of Paris consented to 
pay to the state the sum of 9,488,000 francs. The two sums put 
together give an approximate total of 45,000,000 francs. There 
will certainly be other expenses, which it is generally surmised will 
raise it to about 60,000,000 francs. 

All these successive modifications amount to this, that hardly 
any trace of the conditions laid down for the competition now re- 
mains. A moral must be drawn from it, for fear of losing all 
benefit from this experience, and it is this : that in future, commis- 
sioners charged to prepare such programmes ought to leave the 
greatest amount of liberty to competitors. Rules too precise or 
too narrow always are an infringement on their liberty, even if they 
do not fetter their taste, ingenuity, and talent. 

OBSTACLES OVERCOME. 

The final design having been submitted to the Chambers, the 
appropriation was voted without opposition, and a decree fixed the 
amount of credits to be opened at the sum of 35,313,000 francs, ac- 
cording to the estimates. M. J. B. Krantz, the reporter of the com- 
missiorl in the Senate, was elected general commissioner. A better 
choice was impossible, not only on account of his special knowledge 
and high character, but because of his experience as director in 
1867 of the construction of the Palais du Champ de Mars. 

M. Krantz threw all his energy into the work, which was car- 
ried on with the perfection of skill, great executive talent, supple- 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. II 

merited by indomitable perseverance, in the midst of difficulties 
foreign to those inherent to the enterprise itself. Indeed, as soon 
as one of the storms which threatened the safety of the ship had 
spent itself, another black cloud appeared on the horizon. The 
constant alarms kept up by the Russian war against Turkey were 
no sooner calmed than the Treaty of San Stefano became a cause of 
danger to the good understanding between England and Russia. 

Moreover, the exhibition was a work entirely republican ; it was 
destined to prove to the world the resources, the vitality, the pros- 
perity, and genius of France under the new government, which, 
after a disastrous war, had come into existence by the natural force 
des choses, rather than by the choice of the nation. It was like a 
token of peace offered to neighboring states: the abandonment of 
bellicose rancor, the dream of a pacific and humane sort of retalia- 
tion. Such an enterprise, originated, conducted, and successfully 
achieved by a contested government would be the setting up of 
this tottering republic. Nothing more was necessary to make 
the partisans of dethroned monarchy look upon the work with hos- 
tile jealousy ; and it required the utmost resolution to carry it out, 
in spite of the unwearied hostility of vanquished parties. Was the 
Republic, then, to invite the world to such fetes as had hitherto 
been, in France, the exclusive privilege of monarchies? What !— in 
her name the French paLiccs were to be thrown open, the gala 
salons made brilliant for the reception of foreign sovereigns and 
princes ! The Republicans were to be the protectors of science, let- 
ters, and art ! And they could be as elegant and urbane as patri- 
cians ! This was an irremissible crime in the eyes of a certain frac- 
tion of society, which likes to affirm that the Republicans know of 
no better salons than the brasseries, and have only studied politics 
in drinking des cJioppes de biere. It is received as the best ton in 
France to assume that the Republicans are thirsty souls, who may 
occasionally wash themselves, but who never on any account con- 
descend to comb or brush their hair. It may easily be surmised 
how the Conservatives like this argument : it is their last cartridge, 
and it was going to be taken from them ! The Bonapartist news- 
papers especially did not cease to write about "le bazar de M. 
Krantz," his grotesque conception, and the immense failure it 
would prove. 

The coup d'etat parleinentaire of Marshal de MacMahon in 
favor of the Conservative party, the fall of the Republican ministry 
presided over by M. Jules Simon, and the accession of M. de Broij- 



12 THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

He, seemed likely to put a stop to every thing. The foreign ex- 
hibitors began to be discouraged ; interpellations took place in 
several foreign parliaments to know whether the preparations in 
view of the Exhibition of 1878 were to be continued. Luckily, 
the Conservatives had regarded this exhibition very much as 
if it had been the child of decent parents stolen by gypsies. 
The child, who had been declared ill-mannered, dirty, and vicious 
so long as it remained with its kidnappers, recovered its grace, dis- 
tinction, and virtue the moment it was restored to its lawful family. 
This is why, on the 25th May, 1877, the Marshal de MacMahon 
made up his mind to go and visit the works of the exhibition ; 
and M. de Meaux, one of the new ministers, wrote that 

"le moment etait venu de rassurer les grands interets du travail et de la paix 
centre les intrigues de ceux qui s'efforcent de compromettre I'oeuvre de I'Exposition 
Universelle au profit de leurs passions pplitiques." 

In the midst of so much uncertainty and of such frequent changes 
M. Krantz went on steadily with his work, unmindful of discourag- 
ing rumors : he had faith, and he has achieved success. When in 
the last days of the year 1877, after a week passed in the alarms 
and deadly anxiety of an unexampled governmental crisis, the Re- 
publicans recovered power, with M. Dufaure as minister, M. Krantz 
transferred the child from the hands of its benefactors to those of 
its real mother — the Republic. It had grown and prospered, but 
was not yet of age. From that time the works were pushed on with 
incredible activity ; for it was not sufficient to offer a magnificent 
hospitality to foreign nations : the Republic wished to receive them 
with that peculiar kind of politeness called "la politesse des rois" 
by a prince who knew something of it — punctuality. 

She had invited the world for the ist of May, and she mc^.iit to 
be ready at the appointed time. In the last fortnight of April so 
many things remained to be done that this pretension met with 
almost general incredulity. But at the last moment a sort of rage 
for work manifested itself : the scaffoldings which obstructed every 
thing vanished ; the grounds became solid, the walks appeared, the 
trees and shrubs grew as in enchanted gardens. Every thing was 
painted, gilt, and enameled as if by fairies. In the palace of the 
Champ de Mars, on the frail structure of iron composed of such thin 
filaments that it looked rather woven than constructed, the work- 
men feverishly running about appeared like spiders hastily weaving 
.their gigantic web as for very life. To be sure, every thing was not 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 1 3 

ready on the ist of May, 1877, but at least the external decoration 
was complete ; and from the tribune prepared over the cascade of 
the Trocadero, the elite invited to the inauguration could command 
the entire panorama of the exhibition, which was opened on the ap- 
pointed day, with the concourse of an innumerable crowd and really 
magnificent celat. 

Hardly twenty months had elapsed since the Presidential decree, 
and in the course of so short a tirne the undertaking had been 
carried to a successful accomplishment. There was enough in this 
fact to excite both surprise and admiration ; but those who had seen 
the exhibition a few days before the I3t of May and v/ho saw it again 
for the inauguration might have fancied that they v/ere the subjects 
of an hallucination, had it not been for the ground hollowed and bro- 
ken here and there, for the ruts made by cart-wheels and the rails 
for wagons, which still remained as unimpeachable witnesses of the 
human efforts which had been necessary to arrive at this prodigious 
result. 

THE PALAIS DU CHAMPS DE MARS. 

On the first of May, the people of Paris awoke in a state of great 
anxiety: it seemed as if the destinies of the Republic had been in 
question. From early morning the Parisians had interrogated the 
sky. "What sort of weather shall we have?" was in everybody's 
mouth. The atmosphere was heavy, the morning uncertain, with 
mincrled haze and sunshine. The satisfaction of the Conservatives 
increased with every cloud appearing on the horizon. At one 
o'clock all seemed lost. At the precise moment when the cortege 
was leaving the Trocadero an immense black cloud burst upon the 
assemblage. The people heroically remained for an hour under a 
deluge of rain accompanied by thunder and lightning ; carpets had 
to be spread out under the feet of the cortege as they crossed the 
Bridge of Jena. At two o'clock it cleared up, the sun shone, and 
the immense panorama looked fresh and dazzlingly brilliant, as if 
newly painted by a magic brush. After a little hesitation, the sky 
had decided in favor of the Republic. 

The inauguration was an admirable spectacle, full of grandeur ; 
and it is now universally confessed that after the undeniable success 
of the enterprise the French Republic has sent its roots to the very 
heart of the country, to a depth which defies winds and storms, and 
that the fragile sapling of some years since is, at last, a tree. 

The industrial palace of the Champ de Mars occupies a rect- 



14 THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

angle of 650 meters in length and 350 in breadth. Seen as a 
bird flies, it is easy to perceive that it is composed of a certain num- 
ber of galleries in juxtaposition, of different breadths and different 
heights, all directed lengthwise. In this direction, one remarks 
two galleries higher and wider than the others, and which form the 
sides of the rectangle itself. These are reserved for machines 
The longitudinal galleries are crossed by only four others. These 
four transept galleries are very broad, and rise above the others 
to a considerable height : the two which form the small sides of 
the rectangle are the great vestibules ; the two intermediates serve 
as promenade galleries, and are called promenoirs. Just in the 
middle of the edifice is a long street, or rather a long court, which 
goes from end to end, and is only broken by the vestibules and 
promenoirs. It has been found necessary to prolong them from one 
end to the other, in order to secure the communications between 
the two portions of the divided palace. 

It is in this court, with air on every side, that the fine-art build- 
ing has been placed ; and, to guard against fire or some other acci- 
dent, it has been thought prudent to isolate it completely. This 
building, or rather these buildings, form the spine of the exhibition. 
We may prefer the plural number, for this spine is itself broken in 
the middle (which is the very center of the exhibition), to leave 
room for what was to be the pleasure-garden, according to the first 
idea of the architect. But the original programme had been com- 
plicated and modified ; and one of the most important modifications 
was due to the resolution taken by the city of Paris to have a 
special exhibition of its own. This Parisian exhibition has swal- 
lowed up all the middle part of the garden, and has left at each 
extremity only a separated fragment ; but the pavilion which con- 
tains it, with its ribs of iron so harmoniously united to bricks and 
tiles and terra-cotta, ij charming, with its elegant polychromy and 
calculated lightness. Paris owed to the world, which blindly fol- 
lows the tyranny of its fashions, to be represented by this miracle 
of science and taste. 

At each extremity of this pavilion is the bit of garden men- 
tioned above, and on each side is an entrance to one of the two 
halves into which the fine-art galleries are divided. These entrances 
are by porches, adorned with cupolas of a detestable taste and ill- 
assorted composition. The facades and doors underneath the 
porches, although more tormented in their architecture and richer 
in their coloring, are in worse taste still. As to the building for the 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 15 

fine arts, it is a long and commonplace affair, detached on every 
side from the palace of the Champ de Mars by a street ; and it is 
precisely one of these streets which, according to a lucky inspira- 
tion, has become one of the great attractions and principal curiosi- 
ties of the exhibition under a name henceforth celebrated : la rue 
des Nations. 

The idea of showing in a series of fagades specimens of the 
architecture of different countries and different epochs was cer- 
tainly attractive ; but it is to be regretted that several nations 
should in this circumstance have attempted to outdo reality : the 
specimens of their genius excite suspicion. Amongst the most 
remarkable of these constructions, is that of the Netherlands ; Port- 
ugal has represented the famous cloister of Belem ; England, some 
pavilions of the time of Queen Anne and Queen Elizabeth. The 
most magnificent and most admired of these improvisations, but 
not the most faithful, is the superb palace in which Belgium has 
developed the happy idea of displaying her best and most precious 
materials. Her gray granite, bricks, red and gray marbles, are asso- 
ciated in a warm and somber harmony. It is said that in this suc- 
cessful fancy-work, she has spent no less than 600,000 francs. 

He who knows the power of first impressions ought to penetrate 
into the exhibition by the Grand Vestibule d'HoJineur, which looks 
towards the Seine, because the architect has supposed that it would 
be the starting-point of visitors, and because the great galleries run- 
ning all the length of the edifice open from it by triumphal doors. 
On the left is the gallery containing machinery, then furniture, 
dressing apparel, the liberal arts, and at last the fine arts: all this 
side is given to France. On the right, the arrangement is exactly 
identical : first machinery, then furniture, etc., to end with the fine 
arts. All this side belongs to foreign nations, so that we have here 
an extremely simple classification. The exhibition is divided into 
two symmetrical and equal parts ; France occupies one half of it — 
the left gallery — whilst that on the right has been given up to for- 
eign nations. 

From the economical as well as from the practical point of view, 
these galleries have just the requisite height and breadth, and a 
sufficient decoration. The gallery for machines is lofty and wids 
admirably beautiful in its vast length and industrial simplicity 
The places reserved to other products are more complicated. They 
are composed of a sort of corridor relatively narrow and low. It is 
a space entirely free — a street. A marksman at one end might 



l6 THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

easily send his rifle-ball into a target placed at the other end. On 
each side of the corridor open larger and higher galleries, where 
the taste and fancy of exhibitors are displayed in a thousand differ- 
ent ways. It would be impossible to say what treasures of inven- 
tion have been spent upon these ephemeral but marvelous arrange- 
ments ; not unfrequently glass cases being thought unsatisfactory, 
real saloons have taken their place. Some mouldings in wood, or 
bands of painted canvas, simulate cornices ; above these, plain vel- 
iims or colored blinds have been thrown, and make luminous ceil- 
ings, which filter the too violent light of the glass-covered galle- 
ries discreetly and agreeably. 

Everywhere the questions of hospitality and comfort have been 
treated by the administrators with international courtesy ; they 
have shown themselves more than merely polite, more than 
thoughtful ; they have tried their utmost to please and to be 
agreeable to their guests. There is a profusion of chairs, arm- 
chairs, and benches, of comfortable and harmonious sofas ; in the 
vestibules, circular seats on a raised platform three steps high 
exhibit like so many models those tired enough or imprudent 
enough to seek rest upon them ; it is an ethnographic exhibition 
constantly renewed. Wherever shelters and marquees were neces- 
sary or even desirable, they are to be found. Underground gal- 
leries supply an abundance of fresh air, and when you have to pass 
from the French section to the foreign department, it is with the 
greatest pleasure that you find a little bit of sky above your head, a 
little green grass under your feet, in the charming and delicious 
squares at the center of the palace. As the longitudinal galleries 
would have seemed terribly monotonous if nothing had come across 
their length, they are divided artfully by the enormous promcnoirs 
where some pretty and almost noiseless kinds of manufacture have 
been stationed, and works of art scattered about. It is such a 
pleasure to find space and quiet after the confusion and jostling 
of the galleries ! 

The vestibules and promenoirs are as many splendid halls ; the 
Vestibule cf Honneiir^ of course more richly ornamented, is really 
grand in its simplicity. 

^ Elegant and supple in the pavilion of the town of Paris, the 
style of ironwork becomes chaster here, and reaches severity and 
grandeur. The fact that iron has acquired in art its title of nobil- 
ity will remain as one of the most surprising results of this exhibi- 
tion. But what gropings in the dark before the goal was attained, 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 17 

and how many ugly, illogical, and ridiculous edifices were built dur- 
ing the years of experimental uncertainty ! 

On the first appearance of this new constructive material, whose 
properties were so different from those of other materials hitherto 
employed, architects could not immediately renounce their invet- 
erate habits ; they could abandon neither the forms to which they 
had always been accustomed, nor their ideal of the substantial. It 
would have been necessary to do what Descartes and some philos- 
ophers have done — to unlearn every thing of the past, and to con- 
sider one's mind as a slate that has just been wiped. 

Excepting the pavilions of the extremities contrived for a transi- 
tion, we can see in this great vestibule neither columns nor pilasters, 
no capitals, nor any of the twisted and sharp ornamentation to 
which iron inclines with such dangerous facility, and which would 
have looked ridiculous in such an immense structure. There are 
neither connecting-rods, nor trellised beams, nor iron ropes, nor all 
that complicated network of industrial armature where the eye 
sticks fast and struggles painfully amongst so many bars and points. 
In the present instance, iron has been simply used as an L or a T 
square ; irons so shaped being placed at a certain distance one from 
the other, and the intervals filled with light materials, such as bricks, 
plaster, panels of terra-cotta or tiles. It is easy to compose in this 
manner pilasters, beams, or coffered panels, the iron forming, as it 
were, simply the line which a draughtsman would have to draw to 
determine his contours ; all the character, the variety, and the rich- 
ness depending upon the materials inserted. 

Such is the great vestibule, formed of simple pilasters, contin- 
ued without interruption and without capitals by transverse ribs 
adapting themselves to and preparing the form of the arched roof. 
These ribs, with the longitudinal beams, make a series of rectangles 
which, on being filled up with plaster-mouldings, produced a richly 
coffered ceiling. The simplicity of this kind of construction is 
wonderful, and the merit of the architect consists, first, in having 
discovered it, and then in being sufficiently strong-minded to carry 
it out. 

The view of the nave is really fairy-like : in all its length it Is 
only stiffened by a few pilasters marking intervals occupied by vast 
transepts with gigantic bays in glass. Three cupolas give additional 
height to the center and the extremities of the nave ; and in these 
cupolas, as everywhere else, we recognize the triumphant will of an 
architect determined to employ iron according to its constructive 



iS THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

qualities, and to attain the maximum of economy and lightness. 
With nothing but mere ribs filled up with light materials, it is pos- 
sible to give to this kind of building both sufificient strength and 
that grace, lightness, and elegance which are its peculiar beauty. 

This nave was of the most imposing grandeur before the intro- 
duction of the enormous objects which make us incapable of judg- 
ing its proportions. Let the reader imagine a gallery in which a 
giant had got together, as a collection, an Egyptian obelisk, a 
Roman arch of triumph, and such things, just as an amateur might 
assemble a few small antiquities in a glass case. Here are exhib- 
ited, in structures like triumphal arches, the products of the state 
art factories, the porcelain of Sevres, the Gobelins and Beauvais 
tapestries ; and here, too, may be seen in monumental cases the 
magnificent Indian collection belonging to the Prince of Wales. 
The frame, to be worthy of the picture, needed to be gilt ; this was 
not forgotten here, where every thing shines and glistens. 

As to the external fagade, it would be imprudent to judge of it 
by the innumerable illustrations which have made it popular. En- 
gravings fail to convey the impression of grandeur produced by its 
massive character, as well as the elegant polychrome in which all 
the refinement of Parisian taste has found full play. These two 
elements are integral parts of the work, and can not be separated 
from it w^ithout destroying its warm and regal aspect. The archi- 
tects have shown great tact by having the fagade painted of a blue- 
gray, because it harmonizes well with the glass, which occupies such 
an immense surface that its tone necessarily commands the local 
color of the entire building. And the applied ornaments in the 
pilasters and cornices, whilst generally colored with this prevailing 
tint, are relieved, nevertheless, with some retouches lively enough 
for gayety, and yet so sober that there is neither scattering of effect 
nor glitter. 

The straight and relatively simple parts, between the advancing 
pavilions, are admirably successful, but the pavilions themselves 
will not please everybody. An exception could "be made in favor 
of the central one, whose restless forms are at least light, and awake 
interest by their strangeness ; but those at the extremities are un- 
graceful, and an absolute failure. Nothing could be more ugly, 
vulgar, and pretentious than the dead wall which reaches the height 
where the cupola rises out of it ; nothing more illogical than to see 
the thin ribs of these flimsy domes crown such a heavy mass; and 
nothing more contemptible than the small cupolas which stand in 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. I9 

attendance on the big ones. As a completion of evils, the heavy 
basement, whose awkwardness might have been overlooked had it 
been painted in the prevailing tone, is particularly brought under 
notice by the help of the most glaring yellow. It is impossible not 
to be struck by a defect which seems so insolently proud of itself. 
This is a remarkable example of the really incredible faults which 
men of taste may commit when taste forsakes them. 

After surveying the ensemble of the Palais du Champ de Mars, 
one might say that this kind of architecture is wanting in original- 
ity, if not in structure at least in its forms, and to be Oriental in its 
general aspect, in its insertions of mosaics and tiles, in its elevation 
of cupolas or squinches. Without denying the truth of the accu- 
sation, we think there are extenuating circumstances in the case. 
This Oriental architecture has always been traditionally chosen for 
public fetes, and the general aspect of a universal exhibition, with 
its cafes, bazaars, restaurants, and annexes, is obviously that of a 
fair, also a kind of popular fete. Lastly, this kind of architecture 
adapts Itself marvelously well to the Intrinsic qualities of iron — to 
its stiffness and to Its flexibility. 

THE PALACE OF THE TROCADERO. 

As for the Palace of the Trocadero, It can only be considered as 
a sort of large theatrical scene, intended to inclose harmoniously 
this cosmopolitan fete. The inise en scene is a success. It has fre- 
quently been asked to what style this architecture belonged ? It is 
a new one — the international style — In which the Byzantine, Roman- 
esque, and Florentine are mixed in an agreeable manner. The 
form of these constructions, taken as a whole, is that of an immense 
horse-shoe, turned towards the Champ de Mars, and holding forth 
its great arms as If to embrace the second half of this double pro- 
ject. A public hall, spacious enough to contain six thousand peoples 
occupies the center, where its rotunda projects like an enormous 
body. On each side there Is a lecture-hall. 

The wings arranged as porticoes serve for shelter and prome- 
nades ; they widen at their extremities and finish in an elegant 
pavilion. Behind the colonnade they contain long and naturally 
curvilinear rooms, lighted by glass roofs. These rooms contain 
the retrospective exhibition, which is expected to prove a great 
success. 

When close to it, the rotunda of the great public hall seems 



20 THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 

greatly swelled ; seen a little further off the prominence is some- 
what flattened, but the disappearance of this defect only serves to 
show another. I wonder why the colonnades of the great horse- 
shoe aisles should not be as high as the aisles themselves. From 
the Champ de Mars the columns lose all proportions and produce 
the effect of skittles. The Etruscan red tint, behind the colonnade, 
is well devised to give prominence to the columns, and successfully 
detaches them from the wall to which they seemed to adhere 
formerly when seen at a distance ; but, on the other hand, this 
stratagem is perhaps responsible for an appearance of meagerness 
in the columns as they stand out against the background. All the 
structure is in alternate courses of white and reddish stone, the 
friezes ornamented with mosaics ; and this polychromy, always in its 
proper place and used with taste and moderation, produces a 
charming effect, and gives a look of gayety to the monument. 
After all, the daring idea of dividing the exhibition by the Seine 
has proved a happy one from a picturesque and decorative point of 
view. The two palaces of the Trocadero and Champ de Mars are 
separated by two parks, or rather by a park situated on both sides 
of the river ; the garden forms a sort of immense walk in the axis 
of the two buildings, and enables one to enjoy all the different per- 
spectives. On the right and on the left the grounds are pictur- 
esquely laid out : bowers grow, flowers blossom, rocks rise up and 
water filters through them and falls at last into vast basins. 

Whether in the Trocadero galleries, or on the terrace of the 
Champ de Mars, the sight is splendid, although somewhat spoiled 
and vulgarized by the immense fair which spreads itself there. But, 
on the Bridge of Jena, the eye only rests upon magnificent spectacles. 
It is on this bridge, chosen by the architects with wonderful tact 
as the center of a perspective circumference, that the impression 
received is the most vivid and noble, because the numerous aspects 
of this complex composition appear so harmoniously blended to- 
gether. 

Before us rises the Trocadero, with its sloping gardens and the 
cascade, which, after a fall of thirty-three feet, descends to its basin 
by a giant's staircase ; the whole crowned by the palace, whose 
arms approach you with I know not what inviting grace. Their 
half circle, which is completed by the imagination of the spectator, 
incloses a scene which, without them, would seem scattered and 
wanting in unity. Seen from the garden, even the famous towers, 
three hundred feet high, which criticism has treated so unkindly, 



THE FRENCH EXHIBITION. 21 

find indulgence fro. the contented spectator. Man. other th^^.s 

.ight make him f-f;;^;^^V;:ndecy to excess, in word or deed, 
he will recognize the French t^naency ^^ ^^^^ 

and an expression of national pride m the festival 

"° Behind us are the park and the palace of the Champ de Mars . 
on tt':iht and on tl^ left the Sein. wUh ^je perspe.i c^of^J 

tremble m ^^ ^^_._.y ^j^^^^ „,,t t^ sea. 



augment. 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL/ 



BY JAMES MORGAN HART. 



WAS the Exhibition at Vienna a failure ? To answer the ques- 
tion fairly, it will be necessary to recall its prominent features, 
and to evoke, so far as may be possible at this late day, their con- 
trasting lights and shadows. 

The Exhibition was opened on the first day of May, 1873. As 
those present will remember, it was a dreary day in every respect. 
The morning ushered itself in cold and lowering. The pervading 
simplicity of the ceremonies was oppressive. The air was not en- 
livened with strains of martial music, there were no long lines of 
soldiers giving color and impressiveness to the avenues of approach. 
Nothing but the unwonted crowds in the streets of the Leopoldstadt 
and around the Praterstern, and the interminable single file of carriages 
creeping at a snail's pace along the main drive of the Prater toward the 
southern portal, betokened the proximity of the great event that was 
to proclaim New Austria the peer, in hopeful enterprise and self- 
improvement, of her elder sisters, England and France. The chill 
of the atmosphere was the reminder of winter, rather than the har- 
binger of summer, and the driving mist was fast degenerating into 
dismal, unmistakable rain. The Emperor and his suite entered the 
Rotunda at the appointed hour of noon, with commendable punctu- 
ality. A signal gun, fired outside, gave notice of the entry, but the 
accompanying peal from the imperial band was lost to the spectators 
seated within. The multitude, at least twenty thousand in number 
but not filling the vast area under the towering dome, rose to greet 
the cortege as it moved slowly through the center to take its place on 
the far side opposite the main portal. The speeches delivered on the 
occasion were notable for their brevity ; no one exceeded five minutes. 

From the hitcrnational Keviezv^ January, 1875. 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 2T, 

This first part of the ceremony was over in less than half an hour. In 
one respect alone could it be called inspiring: in its music. The 
singing was superb. The two Vienna Glee Clubs, the Academy of 
Vocal Music, and the University Glee Club, together many hun- 
dreds of voices, supported by Strauss's band and the orchestra of 
the Imperial Opera, delivered the simple strains of the Austrian 
national hymn and of Handel's March with wonderful sweetness 
and strength. Singers and instrumentalists being so remote as to 
present but a confused mass, their movements did not distract the eye, 
while the notes, rising to the vault and there commingling into one, 
descended like the silver-tongued greeting from an invisible choir 
hovering in mid-air. 

The Exhibition was not really opened, that is in readiness for the 
tourist, until the middle of June. Even for a month longer the 
labor of putting on the finishing touches continued. The bloom of 
the enterprise lasted exactly three months, from the middle of July 
to the middle of October. During that period the visitor could give 
himself up to undisturbed enjoyment. The chilling showers of May 
(it rained twenty- five days in the month) had spent themselves, the 
fiery heat of the early summer had abated ; the empty cars and 
boxes and other unsightly debris of unpacking had been removed, 
the gravel-walks were well beaten down, the newly laid turf was 
hardy and green, the parterres put forth their sweet array of living 
colors, the fountains in front of the Rotunda threw aloft their glit- 
tering spray, the swans seemed quite at home in the massive granite 
basins. Then it was a pleasure to ramble through the grounds in 
the cool of the evening, to wander slowly past the palm-house, to 
loiter in front of the Japanese garden, so attractive with its quaint 
bronze dragons and its dai'nty wood-work, to cast a glance at the 
gaudy Moorish villa, bespangled with motley glass from plinth to 
roof, to enter the Turkish cafe, where the broad veranda and cush- 
ioned sofaleks invited to repose, and nimble red-slippered Greeks 
from Constantinople dispensed mocha, or passed the fragrant chi- 
bouk, while the strains of Thousand and One Nights floated over 
from the Mozart Place, and the doves whirred through the air on 
their way to their cotes by the Khedive's palace. 

To one who had seen the grounds a twelve-month before, say in 
September, 1872, when the then future buildings were only a puzzling 
maze of foundation-wall, when the Rotunda wore the look of a pre- 
maturely ruined Coliseum, and the grounds themselves presented to 
the eye nothing but an ill shapen stretch of puddle and scraggy hil- 



24 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

lock covered with weed and swamp-bush, the transformation was 
hardly less marvelous than the story of Aladdin's lamp. The words 
of the Scripture had been fulfilled, the desert had been made to blos- 
som as the rose. Yet how much of human toil and perseverance had 
gone to the accomplishment of the result. Day by day, even night 
by night, thousands upon thousands of men, and women too, had dug 
and hammered, had staggered under heavy burdens. Providence had 
been propitious. The winter of 1872-3 was a memorable one in the 
annals of European climatology. Not for a single night was the ground 
hardened by frost against the use of pick and shovel, not a single 
heavy fall of snow came to block the long line of railway from Belgium 
and North Germany and interfere with the transportation of iron plates 
and pillars for the Rotunda, there was no ice to choke up the tortuous 
channels of the Danube and cause the annual overflow of the Upper 
Prater. Man and the elements worked for once together. As the 
first of May drew near, the agony of preparation rose to fever-heat. 
During the week preceding the first, it was almost impossible to thread 
one's way through the jostling multitudes of laborers. The last load 
of gravel was not raked down in front of the Rotunda, the last row 
of sod was not laid, until the afternoon of the thirtieth of April. On 
that night the scaffolding in front of the southern and western portals 
was torn down, the flooring finished, and the chairs arranged in the 
Rotunda. All night long until daybreak could be heard the shrill 
whistle of the trains removing empty boxes and loose timber, that the 
Emperor and his suite might at least have unimpeded access. The 
number of persons of both sexes and all grades at work in the enclo- 
sure on the thirtieth of April could not have fallen short of fifteen 
thousand. 

The consequences of this unnatural 'exertion, this frantic haste, 
were to manifest themselves in more ways than one. It is not 
in human nature to endure such pressure without reacting. The 
first sign of the failing energy of the Austrian Qeneral Direction 
was the delay in putting the Machinery Hall in good running order. 
The feed pipes connecting the driving engines with the detached 
boiler-houses outside were flimsy and broke repeatedly, while the 
leakage of steam was at one time constant. Then the Agricultural 
Department displayed the most glaring incompetency in its trials 
of field-machinery. The members of the committee appeared to 
have no ideas whatever as to the proper way of holding a com- 
petitive trial. In the language of the '' New Free Press," the one held 
at Leopoldsdorf in the early part of July was a downright farce. 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 25 

The organization of the international juries on prizes was tardy and 
slovenly. Jurymen who should have entered upon their duties in 
May w^ere not appointed until the end of June. The examinations 
made by the jurymen were, in a majority of cases, hurried and super- 
ficial. What else could have been expected? The objects on exhi- 
bition were so numerous, the distances between articles belonging 
to the same group but displayed by different countries were so great, 
the working time was so short, — practically less than six weeks, — that 
one must wonder at the fewness rather than the multitude of blun- 
ders in the prize-list. As for such a thing as the scrupulous com- 
parative examination of competing articles, it is safe to say that there 
was none. It has been stated, for instance, that the jury on drugs 
and chemicals did not analyze the contents of a single bottle in the 
American collection. The juries based their verdicts upon the local 
or the general reputation of the exhibitor, and sought to protect 
themselves against the charge of injustice by scattering their awards 
in reckless profusion. The total number of articles exhibited was 
over 60,000; of awards, over 20,000. The prize-list was not completed 
and printed until the morning of August i8th, the day on which the 
ceremony of presentation took place in the Riding School of the 
Castle. This ceremony — a more appropriate term would be '' affair " 
' —was piteously tame. The Emperor himself being absent on his 
customary summer jaunt, his place was taken by one of the arch- 
dukes. Baron Schwarz-Senborn read off the list of diplomas of 
honor, the archduke merely stood and listened with an air of resigned 
impatience. A few musicians from one of Strauss's bands, seated in 
a corner of the upper gallery, made from time to time a feeble effort 
to give life to the proceedings. The number of those present, all 
told, did not exceed three thousand, and the time occupied was forty 
minutes. The general tone was apathy, not to say heartlessness. 
But, cold and dispiriting as the eighteenth of August seemed at the 
time, it was to be outdone by the second of November, the closing 
day. Six months before, the great Exhibition had been opened 
with at least a touch of enthusiasm and pomp ; it was closed with no 
more ceremony than if it had been the tawdriest of country shows. 
There were no valedictory exercises ; the multitudes thronged in to 
the number of 140,000, seeing little, but raising clouds of dust, and 
roamed aimless and planless through the buildings and over the 
grounds ; at five o'clock the hoarse fog-whistle screeched its dismal 
note of warning, the two bands struck up the quickstep and marched 
out at the head of the crowd, the police drew their cordon closer and 



26 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

closer, until the last straggler had been intercepted and turned back 
to the gates, and the great show was abandoned to the packers, and 
— if subsequent oral reports are to be trusted — to Hamlet's '' pickers 
and stealers." 

It was a cheerless end for a glorious beginning. Once again was 
taught the futility of undertaking too much. As a mere exhibition, 
that is to say, a collection of things useful and beautiful, the one at 
Vienna surpassed its predecessors in magnitude and in variety. It 
was in truth a microcosm. No pencil will ever succeed in depicting 
its beauties, no tongue will give more than a feeble echo of its won- 
ders. Those only who visited it faithfully and systematically day by 
day for months, keeping their eyes and their hearts conscientiously 
open to novel impressions, can appreciate, the suggestiveness of the 
latest and the greatest world's-fair. In all probability, mankind will 
not look upon the like of it again ; there will not be another such 
meeting of the East and the West. Even the visitor who was con- 
tent to take things as he found them, merely using his senses and 
keeping his mind free from prejudice, although he might not carry 
away with him a very clear and definite idea of any one object or set 
of objects, felt nevertheless his mental horizon extended immeasur- 
ably. It was as if he had made the tour of the world in the course 
of a morning's promenade, had seen a bit of every thing, Japanese 
idols and American artificial teeth, the richest Turkish and Persian 
carpets, Russian sables, delicate Belgian laces, and Krupp's grim 
cannon, sparkling Bohemian glass, Sevres and Staffordshire porcelain, 
— as if he had roamed over the Spice Islands or sailed up the Nile, had 
explored the Elephanta caves of India or the gold-fields of Australia, 
had chased butterflies and beetles in the forests of Brazil or speared 
salmon on the banks of the Oby. There was something akin to 
inspiration in the thought of being able to take in at a glance, as it 
were, all the kingdoms of the world, their fruits, their woods, many 
of their flowers even, their grain, their metals, their costumes, their 
industrial products ; of actually seeing with the eye of the flesh an 
epitome of the wealth of the nations. Yet the tour of the Vienna 
Exhibition was anything but do Ice far niente ; it was hard work, a tax 
upon one's powers of locomotion and perception, upon the memory 
and the judgment. The tourist was ever stumbling upon things 
strange and wholly unexpected, things that he was unable to gauge 
by the petty measuring-rod of his previous experience. One object 
overwhelmed him with its colossal proportions, another puzzled him 
with its costliness and rarity, a third fascinated him with its artistic 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 27 

beauty. However strong might be his will, however fixed his pur- 
pose of special study, he was at times completely under the domina- 
tion of the external world ; he had to flutter like the butterfly 
from flower to flower. . At all events, he could derive consolation 
from the consideration of one circumstance : whichever way he might 
turn his steps, he was certain of making a discovery. It has been said 
that to know and to love Madame Recamier was equivalent to a liberal 
education. Not less true is it that the generous, unconditional sur- 
render of self to the teachings of art and science at Vienna was a 
curriculum transcending that of college or university. None but the 
hopeless dullard or the inveterate PhiHstine could behold such mas- 
terpieces of painting, such wealth of delicate workmanship in cloi- 
sonne, bronze, and porcelain, such array of silks and laces, such 
marvelous adaptation of science to the practical needs of mankind, 
without perceiving sooner or latter that his views had been ex- 
panded, his sympathies quickened ; that he had not only sown in 
his breast the seed of future culture, but had become possessed of a 
convenient standard of his own by which to measure the relative 
value of all things material. 

As an Exhibition in the strict sense of the term, then, the Vienna 
Fair surpassed the expectations of its most sanguine promoters. On 
the other hand, as an enterprise involving heavy outlay and aiming 
at practical results, it was a deplorable failure. There can be no 
doubt on the point. As an effort toward the greater glorification of 
Austria, the Wiener Ausstellung were better never to have been. To 
make this perfectly clear, it will be needful to recapitulate the political 
and financial history of Austria for the past seven or eight years. 
The war of 1866, apparently a crushing defeat for Austria, was in 
reality her salvation. Although losing Venice and the hegemony in 
Germany, she gained in concentration of capital and resources, and — 
a far greater gain — was compelled to emancipate herself from the 
political shackles that had made her name a word of reproach through- 
out Europe. Hungary was reinstated in her autonomy, the burdens 
that had weighed so long upon trade and the acquisition of real estate 
were lightened one by one, the press was set at liberty, political exiles 
returned from banishment, liberal, progressive ideas rolled in upon the 
country in a mighty flood. Austria was undergoing the process of 
regeneration. Capital, that had long lain hidden away in corners, 
awoke at the touch of the wand of confidence and hastened to make 
up lost time. Every body was jubilant over the new era. The 
Vienna Stock Exchange, already predisposed to speculation, became 



28 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

simply delirious. New banks, new railroads, new manufacturing com- 
panies were, organized, new branches of industry started, public 
improvements — such as the Semmering Aqueduct and the Danube 
Regulation Canal — projected with a facility that threw into the shade 
the wildest extravagance of our own petroleum-fever. For the pur- 
poses of the present article, it will suffice to single out one of the many 
causes that produced the financial ^' crash " of 1873, not only because 
it was the feature most characteristic of the times, but because it bore 
directly upon the Exhibition. 

The demolition of the old fortifications that surrounded the inner 
city of Vienna was begun in 1858. The object of this measure was 
to relieve the pressure upon the habitable area of the capital by fur- 
nishing ground upon which to erect dwelling-houses. At first the 
work progressed slowly, the building kept pace with the growth of 
the population. But, stimulated by the dangerous example set in 
Paris by Baron Haussmann, the spirit of speculation seized, upon the 
new field of operations and vindicated it for its own. Building banks, 
building associations, credit-fonciers, were soon the order of the day. 
Vienna was to be beautified and made the worthy rival of Paris. All 
the available ground was bought up at enhanced prices, old houses 
were torn down to make room for commercial palaces and sumptuous 
hotels. From Vienna the infection spread to Pesth and the other towns 
of the empire, to Berlin, Dresden, and throughout North Germany, 
until the entire region of Central Europe, from the Alps to the Baltic, 
was in the hands of the '' builders." It would be no exaggeration to 
say that in February, 1873, only three months before the "crash," 
the new buildings either just completed or rapidly approaching com- 
pletion in Vienna alone were to be measured by the acre. 

It was during this hot-house period that the idea of the Exhibition 
was broached. New Austria was to show to the world how great she 
had grown through her recently won freedom ; the older capitals, 
London and Paris, were to be made to see what a formidable rival 
they had in the. metamorphosed residence of the Hapsburgs. The 
Franco-German war caused serious delay, and even threatened to 
put an end to the enterprise. But in July, 1871, the Austrian Parlia- 
ment voted 6,000,000 florins ($3,000,000), in aid of the 3,000,000 pre- 
viously guaranteed by the Trades Union of Vienna. This sum was 
so manifestly inadequate, that in September, 1872, an additional 
appropriation was made of 6,000,000 florins. From that time the 
work of construction was pushed with vigor. Indeed it was evident 
that nothing but the most desperate energy would succeed in carry- 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 29 

ing out the programme by the appointed time. The Director-in. 
Chief, Baron Schwarz-Senborn, was invested with almost autocratic 
powers ; laborers were imported by the hundred from Hungary and 
Italy, the government lent the services of the sappers and miners of 
the Vienna garrison. But notwithstanding its energy and its lavish 
outlay of money, the General Direction would have broken down, had 
it not been aided by the unexpected mildness of the weather. A 
winter like that of 1 870-1 would have necessitated the postponement 
of the Exhibition until 1874. 

Meanwhile the building mania was running its course in the city. 
In 1 871 the Grand Hotel was opened. It contained 300 rooms. 
In 1872 and 1873 were opened the following: Austria (150), Donau 
(280 rooms and 45 parlors), Britannia (150 and 40), Metropole (400 
and 25), Union, Wimberger, (200), Imperial, (150), Hotel de France. 
Furthermore, the Golden Lamb and Tauber were remodeled, and their 
capacity more than doubled. To these new hotels, all of the first 
class and elegantly furnished, must be added a score of new hotels 
garnis, and new lodging-houses, cafes, and restaurants by the hun- 
dred. For a city already well supplied this sudden expansion was 
something unprecedented. 

In less than a fortnight after the opening of the Exhibition came 
the '' crash." This monetary panic, long expected by the more 
knowing financiers, shook the Vienna Stock Exchange with a fury 
unparalleled since the days of the South Sea Bubble. On Friday, 
the ninth of May, the "Black Friday" of the Schotten Ring, one 
hundred and ten failures were read off at the Board. The Bourse 
was formally closed, settlements were adjourned until the fifteenth. 
On that day, one hundred and fifteen fresh victims were buried. 
Stolid despair seemed to have settled upon every one, business was 
at a standstill, *' fancy" stocks were blotted out of existence, among 
them most of the building banks and building associations, and even 
the best stocks, the National Bank alone excepted, dropped thirty 
and fifty per cent. By the sixteenth of June, the depreciation of 
values, estimated by price quotations, had reached the enormous 
figure of $300,000,000. Even this computation takes no account of 
stocks not quoted, or of commercial failures and protested notes and 
drafts. Vienna, that had deluded herself into the expectation of com- 
peting with London and Paris, was crippled for years to come. At 
first a bourse-panic, the " crash " developed into a lingering com- 
mercial crisis of the most malignant sort. Commerce and industry 
lay prostrate for months. 



30 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 



As a matter of course the "crash" threw a cloud over the Exhi- 
bition. Not that there was any direct or necessary connection be- 
tween the two events ; the crisis would have come in any case. But 
coming when and as it did, it spoiled the Exhibition for the Viennese. 
They lost all interest in the enterprise, and made no effort to enter- 
tain the guests whom they had been at such pains to invite. Fur- 
thermore, those Vienna exhibitors who had accumulated a heavy 
stock of goods, in the expectation of selling them to visitors, were 
disappointed. The strangers did not buy. Even such articles as 
toilet-furniture and Russian-leather ware, for which Vienna is justly 
celebrated, found but a feeble demand. The Japanese and Persians 
sold almost if not quite every thing that they had brought over, the 
Italians and French had tolerable success in disposing of their jew- 
elry and bronzes, the English did well with their porcelain. But the 
Viennese discovered that. nearly their entire stock was left on their 
hands at a time when the home-market was in its most unsettled 
condition. In fact, the Orientals were the only exhibitors that did 
what might be called a good business. From all other quarters one 
heard the complaint that nobody seemed willing to buy, or seemed 
to have money. 

It would be difficult to account fully for this lukewarmness. Two 
causes have been suggested. First, that the visitors at Vienna were 
not of the buying class. Every shopkeeper on the Continent will 
admit that his best customers are the English and Americans, and 
after them — but at a great distance — the Russians. These last did 
not come to Vienna in numbers. What would have been to them 
the chief attraction, namely, the Czar's visit, occurred at too early 
a stage of the Exhibition, during the first week in June. As to the 
English and Americans, they were sparely and poorly represented. 
The wealthy, dashing families, that set the tone in Paris, Naples, 
Florence, Rome, and Geneva, held aloof from Vienna. Whether they 
were afraid of the cholera, whether they thought the Exhibition a 
failure, whether they found better use for their time elsewhere, may 
remain an open question. There is no disguising the fact that 
American and English tourists move over the Continent in herds, and 
are not to be induced to deviate much from a beaten track. Paris, the 
Rhine, Switzerland, the western side of Italy as far as Naples, with a 
flank diversion to Venice, make up their itinerary. Those who 
venture at all into Germany, content themselves with Munich and 
Dresden. Austria is to them an unknown land, Vienna an ultima 
Thuk\ whither it is not quite safe to take one's wife and children. 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 3I 

What could be expected of the fresh importations, when the 
half-domesticated showed themselves indifferent ? Dresden is only 
twelve hours by rail from Vienna, yet of the hundreds of English 
and American families living there, not more than ten or a dozen 
deemed it worth their while to make the trip. In the next place. 
Exhibition prices were high. The Viennese in particular com- 
mitted the fatal blunder of killing the goose before she had even 
begun to lay her golden eggs. The fact was patent to any one who 
chose to make inquiry, that articles of Austrian manufacture could 
be obtained at much more reasonable rates in the city than in the 
Prater. Experienced travelers also observed that the prices for 
French, English, and Italian articles were in general twenty per cent 
higher than in Paris, London, or Florence. Exhibitors who had 
gone to considerable expense for transportation, space, show-cases, 
and attendance, thought it necessary to ci)ver themselves by advan- 
cing prices. Buyers, on the other hand, decided to wait until they 
had reached the respective countries in the routine of travel. 

It is highly desirable that some careful and competent observer 
of the last two decades should write the history of national and inter- 
national exhibitions. We might be enabled thereby to ascertain 
whether these gatherings of men and goods, in appearance so con- 
fused, so chaotic, are not in reality governed by certain laws of their 
own ; whether success is not dependent upon the observance of cer- 
tain conditions that we have hitherto failed to perceive clearly. Each 
international exhibition has been larger than its predecessors, and 
has been called forth by the spirit of rivalry. The inhabitants of 
each European capital in turn seem to have said to themselves : So 
much has been done already, can we not go beyond it ? Vienna thought 
to eclipse London and Paris ; Berlin, perhaps even St. Petersburg, 
thinks to eclipse Vienna. But in the absence of general inductions, 
based upon carefully prepared statistics and elucidated by one who 
has made the subject a special study, we are unable to lay down any 
theory of exhibitions. We feel by instinct that certain relations of 
cause and effect must exist, but we cannot demonstrate them scien- 
tifically, much less avail ourselves of them for guidance in the future. 

Two points, however, could not fail to strike even the most super- 
ficial observer at Vienna. The one was that Europe in general was 
growing weary of great fairs ; the other, that a w^orld-exhibition can 
be held to advantage only in a world-center. 

Divested of its beautiful adornments, there remains the naked fact 
that an international exhibition is after all only a business undtrtak- 



32 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

ing, a mode of advertisement. Exhibitors send their wares, not to 
make a fine show merely, but to pave the way for future orders, to 
open new markets. During his first stroll through the Prater, for 
instance, the tourist was tempted to regard the grounds and build- 
ings, with their myriad contents, as a summer fairy scene devised for 
his especial delectation. But on looking more closely, he could 
detect the cloven foot of business peeping out everywhere. All those 
charming silks, and statues, and diamonds were there for sale ; the 
polite custodians, so ready with their information, were there to sell 
them ; around the neck of an elegant bronze hung perhaps a card 
bearing the announcement: Sold to his Highness, the Duke of 
Chambord ; the very parterres took pains to inform him that they 
had been laid out by Swoboda & Sons, of Vienna. For all its mag- 
nitude and variety, the Vienna Exhibition was not an art-collection, 
but a business-show, an effort to make money in one way or another. 
A deal of rubbish has been said about " international education," 
sentimentalists of the Miihlbach order have been profuse in their 
laudations of the " friendly concourse of peoples," but the careful 
student of such exhibitions is constrained to admit that the alpha 
and omega of them is business, pure and simple. Not one in a hun- 
dred of the many thousand exhibitors at Vienna (except of course 
the amateurs that sent their marvels of embroidery and needlework), 
would have taken the first step, had he not believed that it would 
lead ultimately to his own pecuniary profit. This view may seem at 
first low and materialistic, but it is certainly much less apt to mis- 
guide than its opposite. To the exhibitor the case presents itself as 
a problem. Given so much expense, so much trouble and loss of 
time, so much opportunity of coming before the public, will the 
undertaking pay me? Are there not other, more, regular and less 
expensive ways of effecting the same object ? This problem was 
discussed very actively at Vienna, and the temper of the discussion 
furnished grounds for believing that many of the more experienced 
exhibitors, the large firms in England and France, who have tried 
the experiment more than once, are prepared to discontinue it. The 
facihties for advertisement, for transportation, for establishing local 
agencies, are increasing so rapidly, the tendency of legislation in 
Europe is so evidently in favor of free trade, that business men find 
little difficulty in introducing their goods into any market. Inter- 
national trade has ceased to be a matter of politics and become a 
mere matter of capital and energy. It is undoubtedly true that the 
earlier exhibitions in London and in Paris operated directly and 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 33 

powerfully in disposing the minds of rulers and peoples in favor of 
free trade. But now that the conversion has been effected, the end 
reached, the question arises, whether it is desirable to retain the 
means. Viewed in this connection, the Vienna Exhibition, in itself 
a failure, may yet eventuate in gain ; its palpable teachings will be 
an efficient auxiliary to the arguments of the reformers who seek to 
abolish the existing remains of a protective tariff and to incorporate 
Austria in the German Zollverein. 

The two exhibitions at London yielded a profit ; the Paris expo- 
sition of 1867 showed a slight deficit. At Vienna the deficit has been 
estimated as high as $6,000,000. The cause was two-fold ; the 
expenses^ were greater, the receipts from gate-money less. In 
attempting to account for the marked difference in the number of 
paying visitors at Paris and at Vienna (10,000,000 as opposed to 
5,000,000), we may liken a great fair to a great railroad ; both are 
supported by the local traffic. The population of Vienna is not quite 
one million, that of Paris is nearly two millions, that of London, over 
three. Furthermore, both London and Paris, especially the former, 
are surrounded by a network of towns and cities that serve as feeders 
to the metropolis. The population within easy reach of any point in 
London, allowing five hours as the maximum time for going and com- 
ing, may be set down with safety at 10,000,000. The supply upon 
which Paris draws is much smaller, yet Paris is in every respect infi- 
nitely superior to Vienna. -There is not a city, scarcely a town of 
importance, within four hours' ride of Vienna by express train. The 
exhibition, consequently, was dependent either upon foreign tourists 
or upon the capital and its immediate suburbs. During the month 
of May, while the exhibition was still incomplete, the daily average 
of paying visitors was 8,ooo, in June and July the number was 25,000, 
in August 27,000, in September and October, 35,000. The principal 
days were Whit Monday, June 2 (85,000, including holders of free 
tickets), August 22, the Emperor's fete (106,000), and the closing day, 
November 2, (140,000). What Vienna did on these three occasions, 
London could have done every week, if properly stimulated. For 
the total attendance at the Sydenham exhibition of 1862, which was 
not one-fourth as large or as attractive as the great Ausstellung of 
1873, amounted to 6,000,000. Finally, the foreign tourists did not 
present themselves at Vienna in such numbers as had been expected. 
Although Vienna is a beautiful city, the handsomest after Paris in 
cisalpine Europe, its permanent attractions were found to be quite 

* The total outlay did not fall much short of $10,000,000. 



34 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

insignificant by the side of London or Paris. It was not difficult for 
the experienced traveler to exhaust the resources of amusement in 
the Austrian capital in three or four days. As in examining into the 
motives that actuate exhibitors in sending their goods, so in endea- 
voring to ascertain what attracts visitors, we should first rid our minds 
of sentimentalism, we should recognize the truth that ninty-nine out 
of every hundred go simply to see, to gratify idle and harmless curi- 
osity. The idea of self-instruction does not occur to the ordinary 
visitor; he is instructed, but the operation goes on without his con- 
sciousness. The tourist visits those cities where he can see the most, 
can be best amused, and can be most comfortable. These two items 
of comfort and amusement play a more important part in shaping a 
tourist's programme than we are apt to imagine. After the work, 
the business of sight-seeing is over, — and it matters little whether 
that sight-seeing be done in museums and picture galleries and old 
churches, or in an exhibition of the products of international industry, 
— the tourist feels that his conscience is satisfied and that he is at lib- 
erty to look around him for amusement. Herein is the secret of the 
charm that Paris wears for her devotees ; she amuses them. Her 
monuments of art and history are immense, but her resources of 
amusement are inexhaustible ; so the traveler is content to linger 
for weeks and months, knowing that she has something for his every 
day and his every mood. The same may be said, with certain restric- 
tions, of London. These are cities that no man can exhaust ; but 
Vienna can be ''done" in forty-eight hours. Tourists are aware of 
this; and as Vienna lies a good distance off the approved route, they 
are not disposed to direct their steps thither. Every tourist expects 
to visit Paris and London as a matter of course, and if there is the 
additional attraction of a world's fair, so much the better; but com- 
paratively few were willing, in 1873, to go far out of their way to see 
Vienna. Then there was an almost universal dread of being subjected 
to discomfort and annoyance. Exaggerated reports of high prices 
and scarcity of lodgings had been spread over Europe, until the word 
Vienna Exhibition became almost a bugbear. The truth was that 
during the first three months lodgings were at a discount rather than 
a premium ; there was more than room for those who chose to come, 
and the prices that had been raised at the beginning of May to the 
highest point dropped to meet the limited demand. But this was 
reversed during the last two months, September and October. Every 
hotel of the first and second class was full; tourists who came late in 
the day, and without securing rooms beforehand, incurred the risk of 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 35 

driving around for several hours in quest of a shelter for the night , 
August prices were trebled. Germans, Hungarians, English, and 
Americans, who had been holding back all summer for cheap prices, 
now rushed pell-mell to be in at the death ; like the Sibylline books, 
the Exhibition grew more precious the more it was wasted away. Yet 
although the number of visitors even then was not sufficient to make 

o 

good the deficiencies of May and June, the city, as a place of tran- 
sient abode for strangers, was decidedly uncomfortable. Not only 
were rooms scarce and very high-priced, but it was difficult to obtain 
good meals. Those familiar with the ins and outs of the city fared 
perhaps well enough, but the ordinary tourist, dependent on his Mur- 
ray or his Baedeker, was forced to take what he could find, and be 
thankful to get any thing. The restaurants in and near the Exhibition 
grounds were overcrowded, so that proprietors became indifferent, 
waiters impertinent, and the cooks careless. The Vienna cuisine, al- 
though superior to that of North Germany, did not satisfy those used 
to the Parisian. The coffee and the bread were faultless, but meats 
and vegetables, entrees and desserts, were prepared after a fashion 
that was neither French nor English, but Viennese, and the guest had 
not time to accustom himself to them. The hotel attendance also 
was unsatisfactory. The directors did all in their power, perhaps, to 
procure waiters experienced in waiting upon polyglot tourists ; but 
hotel-keeping, like every other business, is not mastered in a hurry: 
the almost faultless system oi service that rejoices the traveler's heart 
in Paris and Switzerland is not the work of a day, but has grown up 
slowly, year by year, for over a century. Vienna had done all that 
any city suddenly springing into prominence can do. It had built 
and furnished an extraordinary number of elegant hotels and hotels 
garnis ; it could not change its own character overnight. It had 
invited the world to come, had mourned and lamented that the world 
should be so chary of accepting the invitation ; but when the guests 
did come in anything like numbers, Vienna discerned, to her own 
amazement and their annoyance, that she could not lodge them 
cheaply and comfortably, could not set table for them, could not 
amuse them. The tourist found that he was spending more and get- 
ting less than in Paris. The dissatisfaction was mutual. Whatever 
the Ausstellung may have failed to accomplish, it certainly demon- 
strated this much : that not even a capital numbering a million of 
i^ihabitants, the residence of the oldest reigning dynasty in Europe, 
beautified with a lavish hand and given up to pleasure and easy liv- 
ing, can make a mammoth international exhibition succeed. No 



36 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

sooner did the influx of tourists approximate to the high tide that 
had been confidently expected, than the city became uncomfortable. 
Had that tide come in May and lasted until November, the city would 
have been deluged. It is only the great oceans, London and Paris, 
that can transmit the tidal waves of population without a surge on 
their broad bosoms. But it is now time to turn abruptly from the 
Old World to the New. 

Some distance back from the western bank of the Schuylkill, and 
one hundred and twenty feet above its level, stretches the broad 
Lansdowne Plateau, a portion of the recently opened public park of 
the city of Philadelphia. The visitor whom chance or curiosity might 
have led thither on any pleasant day in October last, could not avoid 
being impressed with the massive outer walls of the first story of a 
large and well proportioned building in process of erection on the 
highest point of the plateau, the so called ''terrace." Almost at the 
foot of this first building was also to be seen a tangled network of 
trenches and masonry, the foundations of a second and much larger 
structure, just emerging from the ground. The visitor had before 
him the Memorial Hall and the Main Pavilion of the Centennial in 
their embryonic state. Would it be possible to cast a prophetic 
glance into the future of the enterprise thus started ? We can 
not make the attempt until we have first collected the facts of the 
present and compared them with the lessons of the past. 

In the first place, Lansdowne Plateau, as a mere building-site, is 
superior to the Prater of Vienna. The outlook is fine, and the soil, 
consisting of clay and loam, does not differ much from that of the 
ordinary house-lot in the city ; drainage, it might be said, comes of 
itself, the plateau sloping down on all sides but one. The soil of the 
Prater, on the contrary, is in many places moist, almost swampy, and 
in most places loose and unstable. The foundations for all the 
heavier buildings had to be obtained by the tedious and costly pro- 
cess of pile-driving. The Prater, moreover, has no natural drainage, 
the general elevation of the ground being but 2 ft. 6 in. above high- 
water mark in the Danube Canal, the only available outlet. The 
Austrian General Direction were consequently forced to lay the 
drainage-pipes at a level intermediate between that of high-water 
and low-water in the canal, and to construct an expensive system of 
stop-valves and pumping-engines, to be used in the emergency of a 
summer freshet in the canal. Finally, the grading, which constituted 
an important item of the general expenditure at Vienna, will play 
but an insignificant part in the construction account at Philadelphia. 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 37 

Taken all In all, then, the facilities afforded by the Lansdowne 
Plateau are unsurpassed. 

In the next place, the Plateau is most favorably situated with 
regard to railroad transportation. It stands in a sort of triangle 
between the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Junction 
Railroad, and less than half a mile from either. This Junction Rail- 
road — it may not be superfluous to observe for the benefit of the 
reader unfamiliar with the topography of Philadelphia — is the com- 
mon connecting link for all the railroads that center in the city, and 
the highway over which passes all the travel between the South and 
New York. It is no temporary makeshift, then, but a permanent 
double-track railroad, built at great expense and with great skill, 
and furnished with every m.eans of handling the heaviest freight and 
passenger traffic wdth safety and dispatch. The carrying capacity 
of the Pennsylvania and the Junction Railroads is practically un 
limited. By laying down connections with these two main lines, the 
managers of the Centennial will be able to receive goods from all 
quarters, north, south, east, and west, without transshipment. Even 
those articles that come from foreign countries can be landed at the 
wharves of the Pennsylvania Railroad on the Delaware, and run into 
the grounds by rail. The ability of the Centennial to receive and 
handle goods by rail, as compared with that of the Ausstellung, is in 
the i:roportion of four to one. For although the Prater grounds were 
connected with the Vienna railroads by a continuous line of track, 
the route was circuitous, and the sharp turns and elbows wxre numer- 
ous and extremely awkward. During the height of the " rush " at 
Vienna, say the last week of April and the first week of May, the 
Ausstellung employees w^ere able, by working night and day, to receive 
and unload 300 cars in twenty-four hours. Reckoning the capacity 
of an Austrian freight-car at two thirds of the American, we get the 
sum of 200 cars as the maximum day's work in the Ausstellung. Truly 
there is not a railroad of the second class in America that could not 
do its work better. A sure evidence of the insufficiency of the track- 
age at \'ienna is to be found in the circumstance that in the early 
part of A ay there was a '' block " of about one thousand cars at the 
terminus of the Northern Railway. Furthermore, the managers of 
the Centennial, profiting by the experience acquired at Vienna, have 
decided to run temporary tracks directly into the Main Pavilion itself. 
By this means they will reduce cartage and truckage to a minimum. 
One of the most discouraging features of the Vienna Exhibition was 
the excessive amount of pulling and hauling necessary to move 



38 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

weighty or bulky articles from the car-tracks outside to the interior 
of the Industrial Palace. 

In the third place, the Philadelphia buildings will be much 
more manageable than those at Vienna. The chief building of 
the Ausstellung, the Industrial Palace, presented many striking archi- 
tectural features, but it was in the main impracticable. It was un- 
wieldy by reason of its excessive length, and the Rotunda, which, 
standing alone, would have been impressive in the highest degree, 
was rendered " squat " in appearance by the wings. The managers 
of the Centennial have done wisely in refraining from any attempt 
at imitating the Austrian plan, and in contenting themselves with a 
smaller and more simple building modeled after the Sydenham 
Palace. The Main Pavilion of the Centennial may be described, in 
a general way, as a rectangular parallelogram, sixteen hundred feet 
long by five hundred broad. The height will be between seventy 
and eighty feet, except about the junction of the axes, where the 
central towers rise one hundred and twenty feet. The materials 
used in the construction will be iron and glass. When sold at the 
close of the exhibition, they will realize, it is asserted, at least forty 
per cent of the total cost of construction. The area of the Pavilion 
will be divided into longitudinal and transverse zones ; the former 
serving for the grouping of articles by departments, the latter by 
countries. This arrangement, it will be observed, resembles that of 
the Paris Exposition of 1867 in its general features, the chief differ- 
ence being that in Paris the shape of the building was that of a 
flattened ellipse. While the managers of the Centennial do not 
hope to succeed in carrying out this two-fold grouping — by depart- 
ments and by nationalities — with all the nicety of detail that charac- 
terized the Paris Exposition, they are confident of making their 
Main Pavilion a marked improvement upon the Industrial Palace at 
Vienna. There is no reason for regarding this confidence as ill 
founded. The purely geographical arrangement, as it was styled, 
that prevailed in the Industrial Palace, proved itself to be unfortunate. 
Each nation stood by itself, as a detached entirety. The result was 
that the visitor who wished to make comparisons was obliged to 
walk from one end to the other of a building three thousand feet 
long. Thus, to select one article for the purpose of illustration, the 
porcelain from England was at the extreme west, that from China 
and Japan at the extreme east, that from France, Italy, and Germany, 
between, at wide intervals. To one desirous of studying fictile work 
In all its varieties, the waste of time and energy in overcoming 

VOL. II. — 2 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 39 

such distances was a serious drawback. These remarks upon the 
Industrial Palace will apply with equal force to the Machinery Hall, 
the Agricultural Halls, and the other buildings at Vienna. The 
universal opinion among those who had to do with the Exhibition 
was that the so called geographical arrangement was excessively 
inconvenient. 

The present condition of the finances of the Centennial may be 
briefly described as follows. The State of Pennsylvania has appro- 
priated $1,000,000; the city of Philadelphia, $1,500,000. Subscrip- 
tions to the stock fund now amount to $2,100,000. The State appro- 
priation goes, by the terms of the donation, to the erection of 
Memorial Hall, the exclusive use of which, for the time of the 
exhibition, is conferred upon the management of the Centennial. 
Memorial Hall is to be a permanent art-gallery, 365 feet in 
length, 216 in width, and 59 in height (over the basement of 12 
feet), and crowned in the center by a dome. The materials are 
granite, glass, and iron. No wood is to be used in the construction. 
In its dimensions and its architecture, — the modern Renaissance, — 
Memorial Hall will present an uncommon union of beauty and gran- 
deur, and will be a standing ornament to Philadelphia. The city 
appropriation of $1,500,000 is to be divided between the Machinery 
Hall and the Horticultural Hall. This latter is to be a permanent 
building for the uses of the park. Like the Main Pavilion, it will 
be constructed of glass and iron, and tastefully ornamented. The 
Machinery Hall will resemble the one at Vienna in its general pro- 
portions, — an elongated parallelogram, — but will not be so large, and 
will not have such massive side-walls. No plan has yet been adopted 
either for it or for the Agricultural Hall. The Main Pavilion is to 
cover eighteen acres, the Machinery Hall about ten. The estimates 
of expenditure are: for the Pavilion $1,200,000; for the Machinery 
Hall, $800,000 (to be increased if necessary) ; and for the Horticul- 
tural Hall, $200,000. It will be evident, from the above informal 
statement, that the managers of the Centennial rely upon stock- 
subscriptions for meeting general expenses and for erecting the 
Agricultural Hall, which certainly should cover not less than eight 
acres. The running expenses during the time of the exhibition are 
roughly estimated at $1,500,000. 

It is impossible to contemplate these figures and measurements 
without experiencing a sensation of relief. They show that those 
who have the Centennial in charge are willing to profit by the ex- 
ample of Vienna, and confine their aspirations within the limits 



40 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

imposed by prudence. The plan originally adopted for the Main 
Pavilion would have covered thirty acres, and necessitated an expen- 
diture of probably double the present amount. The total area of all 
the above named buildings at Philadelphia will not much exceed that 
of the Industrial Palace alone at Vienna. In other words, in place 
of huge, awkward buildings and immense distances, we shall have 
practical structures at a comparatively moderate expense. What 
the Centennial may lose thereby in bulk, and possibly in variety, it 
will gain in compactness and convenience. The Main Pavilion, for 
instance, although far less pretentious and overwhelming than the 
Industrial Palace, will undoubtedly present a more pleasing coup- 
d'ceil, and will display its contents to greater advantage. 

Concerning the number and the character of the private supple- 
mental buildings that may cluster around the principal buildings, 
nothing as yet can be predicted with certainty. It is possible that 
the carriage-makers, for instance, may combine to erect a pavilion of 
their own. The managers of the Centennial will undoubtedly do all 
in their power to facilitate such private enterprises. The following 
suggestion has been made, which will probably commend itself to 
every liberal thinker. It is that each State and Territory of the 
Union shall erect on the grounds a handsome temple or pavilion of 
its own, constructed of building-materials native to the State, and 
exhibit in this pavilion specimens of the leading articles of its trade 
and industry. The expense for each State would be slight, while the 
ensemble of forest, field, mine, and factory would be startling. But 
there will be no impropriety in conceding, from the outset, that 
Philadelphia cannot compete with Vienna in this particular. The 
Centennial will not be set off with such magnificent private struc- 
tures as the Emperor's Pavilion, the " Press " Pavilion, the pavilions 
of the Duke of Coburg and Prince Schwarzenberg, or the Khedive's 
Palace. 

A large portion of the funds of the Centennial, two of the four 
and a half millions, is derived from subscriptions. These subscriptions 
are put in the form of stock-shares, at $io each. The total amount 
of stock that the managers are authorized to issue is $10,000,000. 
The question naturally suggests itself. What prospect have the sub- 
scribers, or stockholders, of being reimbursed ? The answer will not 
be forthcoming until the exhibition is at an end, and the accounts 
are balanced. The Main Pavilion, the Agricultural Hall, and the 
other buildings (exclusive of the Memorial Hall, Machinery and 
Horticultural Halls) will, it is to be presumed, absorb the fund raised 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 41 

already by private subscriptions. To this expenditure must be added 
the running expenses, estimated at $1,500,000. Against this rather 
formidable-looking outlay are to be set off: first, the receipts from the 
sale of tickets; second, the receipts from licenses for restaurants and 
the like, and from the sale of the official catalogue ; finally, the re- 
ceipts from the sale of the materials used in the temporary buildings. 
In attempting to estimate any one of these sources of income, we 
can not be too careful to avoid the self-deception that arises from 
enthusiasm. Before the opening of the Vienna Exhibition, the Di- 
rector-General relied confidently upon 1 1,000,000 florins of gate-money 
alone ; the official returns after the close showed only 2,500,000 florins 
($1,250,000). In view of the experience obtained at Vienna, we may 
doubt whether the receipts from the sale of entrance-tickets will do 
much more than meet the running expenses. By running expenses 
is meant, of course, all that incidental outlay which does not come 
under the head of construction-account. A daily average of 30,000 
paying visitors at fifty cents a person, for 150 working days (six 
months, Sundays excluded), would yield $2,250,000. This is a high 
estimate ; the receipts from this source at the Paris Exposition of 
1867 fell short of $2,500,000. To an impartial observer, the chief 
difficulty under which the Centennial labors is the want of indorse- 
ment by the national government. Should the aggregate expendi- 
ture outside of the city and state appropriations be fixed positively 
at $3,000,000, and should private subscriptions up to this amount be 
guaranteed by Congress, the status of the Centennial would be raised 
beyond cavil. As matters now stand, those interested in the under- 
taking cannot commit a more serious mistake than that of expecting 
too much. There is no reason for supposing that the daily average 
of visitors at Philadelphia will exceed 30,000, and there are many 
reasons for rating it at not higher than 20,000. The receipts from 
the sale of catalogues are wholly indeterminable ; so also those from 
restaurant licenses. 

Another possible item ot expenditure remains to be discussed, to 
wit, the prizes to be conferred upon meritorious exhibitors. No offi- 
cial decision has yet been reached by the Commission. Many of the 
members are averse to giving any awards or prizes, and it is greatly 
to be desired that their views may prevail. Nearly every one who 
was present at Vienna, and watched the proceedings of the juries on 
the spot, became convinced that the prize-system was a delusion, not 
to say a scandal and a disgrace. The agent of one of the largest 
firms in America was accused openly of attempting to bribe the presi- 



42 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

dent of the jury-section under which his articles were exhibited. The 
president of one of the group-juries (not an American), was accused 
no less openly of foul play in awarding medals to a firm in which he 
was pecuniarily interested. Many of the instances of gross blun- 
dering in preparing the list of prizes were inexcusable. The jurymen 
were, as a class, men of the most undoubted ability and sterling 
integrity, but the work was too much for them. It is not to be 
imagined that any set of jurymen chosen in America would meet with 
better success. We may say, once for all, that a great exhibition is 
not the proper field of operations for prize-jurymen. It is too large, 
and it does not afford the necessary opportunities for testing the rela 
tive merits of the articles offered in competition. The medals given 
by the Royal Society for Agriculture in England, or by the American 
Institute, mean something, because they are given, as we all know, 
sparingly and only after the most searching examination. But a 
Vienna medal meant nothing. By deciding to dispense with medals 
and juries, the Centennial Commission will not only spare themselves 
much trouble and expense, but will prevent an incalculable amount 
of ill feeling, abuse, and trickery. 

Another point, upon which too much stress cannot be. laid, is the 
necessity of having the Centennial Exhibition in complete readiness 
at the appointed time. In the first place, visitors will not come in 
large numbers until the Exhibition is in perfect order. Vienna de- 
monstrated this beyond a peradventure. In the next place, haste is 
a spendthrift. Things done at the last moment are done not only 
badly, but wastefully. The object to which the Centennial Commission 
should bend their energies is the completion of all the public build- 
ings by November 1875, before the setting-in of winter. This done, 
they can dictate their own terms to exhibitors. The winter and 
spring will not be found too long for receiving, unloading, distributing, 
and " installing " goods. The demand for space will probably be 
greater than the supply ; some of those desiring to exhibit will be 
crowded out. If, then, the Commission are able to say in midsummer : 
We shall certainly be ready before Christmas, and we hereby notify 
exhibitors that we do not insure the acceptance of any article de- 
livered after the first of March, — they will enforce punctuality. But 
if the buildings drag, if the Commission are tardy, exhibitors will not 
consider themselves under obligation to hasten their preparations, and 
we shall witness a repetition of the scenes of April and May at Vienna. 
The cause that operated more than any other to prevent a full dis- 
play of articles at the opening of the Vienna Exhibition was the 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 43 

widely spread belief among foreign exhibitors, and even among the 
Austrians themselves, that the buildings could not by any possibility 
be completed at the appointed time. The buildings were ready, it is 
true, but there was no reason for beHeving, in September 1872, that 
such would be the case. Nothing but the singular mildness of the 
winter enabled the General Direction to keep its engagements. If 
the Centennial Commission are interested at all in securing the largest 
possible receipts, they must open their exhibition, not in name 
merely, but in fact, on the appointed day; and in order to do this, 
their buildings must be under roof before Christmas. 

It would be a waste of time to indulge, at this early day, in any 
speculation as to the character and value of the articles to be displayed 
before the public in 1876. Enough has been said, surely, to convince 
the people of this country of two things: First, that the Centennial is 
no longer mere talk, a mere project. It is a plan that has already 
assumed definite shape and proportions, and that will be carried out in 
the manner indicated. Second, that the Centennial, although on a 
smaller scale than the Paris Exposition or the Vienna Ausstellung, will 
be a grand enterprise. Whether or not it will represent American 
industry and commerce as they should be represented, depends upon 
Americans themselves. Our traders and manufacturers have only to 
meet half-way the invitation thus extended, to make the Centennial 
the most brilliant and most fruitful display of their own capabilities 
that can be imagined. Let them, if they will, regard it as a mere 
mode of advertisement. They may never have another such opportu- 
nity of exhibiting before the eyes of the entire country, and of the 
representatives from Europe, exactly what they are doing at this present 
day, and what they are capable of doing in days to come. It would be 
the height of fatuity to view the Centennial as an undertaking in 
behalf of the interests of Philadelphia alone, and to hold aloof from 
it on that account. There is nothing in the constitution of the Com- 
mission, or in the personal character of the members, to warrant such 
an ungenerous suspicion. They are all men who have the honor and 
prosperity of the entire country at heart, and nothing would rejoice 
them more than to see the entire country adequately represented. 
Should the East, South, and West do poorly, it will be because the 
men of those regions have stood tamely by. In that case, they will 
have no one but themselves to blame, if Philadelphia and the Penn- 
sylvanians, after bearing nearly all the burden, should also reap all 
the profit. In one department, certainly, if in no other, the Centennial 
ought to eclipse all its predecessors. Namely, in machinery. It is 



44 VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 

in the power of our manufacturers and inventors to make a display 
of machinery at Philadelphia that shall throw London, Paris, and 
Vienna completely in the shade. This utterance is not the outpour- 
ing of enthusiastic patriotism ; it is based upon a careful study of the 
Machinery Hall at Vienna. There were more "inventive brains," to 
borrow the expression of one of our engineers, in the little section 
occupied by America than in all the rest of the huge Machinery 
Hall. By the side of our ingenious contrivances, that did their work 
with such economy of space and force, and with such precision, the 
cumbrous structures from Germany, France, and even England, 
seemed twenty years behind the times. In this connection, America 
may lay claim to unique distinction. Mr. Corliss was the only person 
who received a diploma of honor without being an actual exhibitor. 
But, in truth, the entire Machinery Hall, with its appurtenances, 
was his exhibition, for every stationary engine at work in the build- 
ing or on the grounds was in principle a Corliss engine. Philadel- 
phians have derived not a little comfort from the success of the 
Franklin Institute Fair, held in October last. This impromptu resus- 
citation of an old annual fair surprised even those who had it in 
charge. The attendance was good, the quantity of articles and 
machinery was very large, and the quality was all that could be 
desired. It was an exhibition of which any city might be proud. 
It showed the ability of Philadelphia to cover an area of several 
acres, at a moment's notice, as it were, with the products of her own 
local industry. Would it not be well for the Centennial Commission 
to obtain a share in the direction of the Franklin Institute for 1875? 
to conduct it on a larger scale, and to operate it, especially with ref- 
erence to what is known by the specific term, '' installation," as a pre- 
paration, a rehearsal for 1876 ? Much could be learned by this means 
in the way of economizing space and insuring artistic arrangement. 

After all that may be said and done, the people of Philadelphia 
hold the fate of the Centennial in their own hands. It is for them to 
foster and fructify the enterprise, or to nip it in the bud. They can 
insure the most complete and disastrous failure, by simply doing 
nothing; they can succeed only by dint of strenuous, clear-sighted 
exertion, and of self-sacrifice. Philadelphia is pre-eminently a city of 
resident families, each occupying a house by itself. There is but 
one large and well appointed hotel : the Continental. The other 
hotels are small, and most of them old-fashioned. There are but two 
or three hotels garnis, and the number of boarding-houses is very 
small. Philadelphia is anything but a travelers'-city. The habits of 



VIENNA AND THE CENTENNIAL. 45 

the residents are regular and domestic, their tastes are simple and 
easily gratified. They are not used to the whirl and bustle of the 
world, the influx and efflux of masses of strangers. We dare not 
cherish any illusions on this point. Philadelphia as it has been, and 
still is, can not accommodate the numbers of visitors that it expects. 
It must first modify, for the time being at least, its style of living. 
Unless Philadelphians can give to the rest of the country unmistak- 
able evidence of their ability and their willingness to furnish lodgings, 
the rest of the country will stay away. The future of the Centennial 
lies here in a nut-shell. There is no city in the world so capable of 
expansion as Philadelphia. At the beginning of the year 1873, there 
were within the municipal limits 124,302 dwelling-houses, for a popu- 
lation of, in round numbers, 700,000. In other words, only five per- 
sons to a house. No such favorable ratio of room-area to population 
exists elsewhere. If we reject 24,302 houses as either too remote, or too 
small, or unavailable for some other reason, we shall still have 100,000 
houses, every one of which has at least one room to spare. It is for 
the Philadelphians themselves to meet the problem. Its solution will 
depend upon their willingness to abandon for the while their domestic 
privacy, to throw open their doors fo strangers from the East, West, 
and South, and possibly from Europe. It is not a matter of enter- 
taining hospitably the delegates of an ecclesiastical conference or a 
scientific congress. It is a matter of sheltering utter strangers, mere 
sight-seers, men and women without any recommendation but their 
personal appearance and their ability to pay their way. Even were 
the capital obtainable, it would not be possible to build and furnish 
in the coming fifteen months a sufficient number of hotels, to say 
nothing of the certainty that such hotels, if too numerous, would be 
left on the owners' hands at the close of the exhibition, as a dead 
investment. Three or four new hotels, each having from two hundred 
to two hundred and fifty rooms, are indeed desirable. They would 
facilitate the arrival and departure of travelers, and would be a per- 
manent gain to the city. 

Here we must rest the case with the Philadelphians. They are the 
persons most directly interested, and the only persons who can act. 
It is always an ungracious task to play the part of a warning coun- 
selor. But it is at times absolutely necessary. We should be but sorry 
friends of Philadelphia and the Centennial, were we to speak only 
words of praise and cheer, and not give voice to our doubts and our 
fears. These doubts and fears do not proceed from ill will ; they 
are the promptings of sober experience. May they be received in 
the spirit in which they are uttered. — {^International Reviezv, Janu- 



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